I04 A Book of the Snipe. 



secret of success ? It is, I believe, in this, 

 that he must trust his sight sufficiently to 

 bring his gun to his shoulder and pull 

 trigger al the very instant that his brain 

 has received the telegraphic message from 

 his eyes. No matter how close the snipe 

 spring up before you (it will seldom be your 

 happy fate to have to kick them up in the 

 British Islands), bang! should go your first 

 barrel at once.^ You will often miss, dis- 

 tressingly often at first; but misses notwith- 

 standing, you will soon be taking a much more 

 satisfactory toll than if you had yielded to 

 that fatal first instinct, the original sin of 

 all shooting mankind, of pottering and wait- 

 ing for a better chance. 



In snipe-shooting your best chance is in 

 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred your 

 first, which in shooting up -wind or in en- 

 closed land will usually be your last also. 

 The trick must be done "by eye" and in- 

 stinct, like playing forward to fast bowlings 

 at cricket. There is less time for prepara- 



1 Of course I am here speaking only of Full-Snipe. 



